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By JOE SYLVESTER jsylvester@leader.net
Monday, January 31, 2000 Page: 3A
LEHMAN TWP. – The Lake-Lehman School District is moving ahead with a $10
million building project that will put students into new and more spacious
classrooms.
But two School Board members and a taxpayers group disagree on the need
for at least part of the project – construction of a new middle school –
citing a declining enrollment and the $7 million cost. They favor renovation
of the current building.
“Every study I’ve seen, we’re losing population in Luzerne County,” said
board member Lois Kopcha.
The project includes building a middle school addition onto the high school
for seventh- and eighth-graders who attend the nearby middle school. It also
includes renovations of the high school and Ross Elementary.
Board member Bob Allardyce said district figures show enrollment was 2,212
on Jan. 3, compared to 2,238 in September.
“I’m not against kids getting a good education, but they haven’t taken a
good look at the junior high (middle school),” Allardyce said.
But Superintendent William E. Price said figures from Ross and Jackson
townships and Harveys Lake indicate future growth, based on available land and
building trends. However, he added, the district was not building because of a
population increase.
“We’re doing it because the current middle school is worn out,” Price
said.
Water in the middle school well is contaminated from a gasoline spill at
the nearby Sunoco station a few years ago, and the school still uses bottled
water. The building also has an aging wooden roof, 550 square feet of
classroom space – 100 square feet less than what is needed – and a sporadic
boiler.
The middle school addition to the high school is to include a new gym, 18
classrooms and expanded library, office and cafeteria space.
Plans for Ross Elementary school include six more classrooms, a cafeteria
and rooms for special education, art and music and a new septic system. Roof
repairs also are being considered. The project will double the school’s size
so it can include grades kindergarten through sixth. It currently includes up
to fourth grade.
Still, some find the new middle school unnecessary.
“Don’t need it,” said Cathie Pauley of the Lake-Lehman School District
Taxpayers Association. “The population is dropping.”
Pauley also said the district has neglected the middle school to justify
building a new school. She said the students like the old school.
A feasibility study done about three years ago estimated the cost of
renovating the school at $2.5 million. Price said the cost would be higher
today. In addition, the estimate did not include repairs to the roof or sewer
and water systems, he said. The study noted it would cost $54,000 to renovate
the middle school to turn it into a maintenance and storage building.
District officials have not decided the future of the old middle school.
The School Board recently approved a short-term $10 million loan, which the
district will convert to a long-term bond issue when the market improves,
Price said. He said the district could avoid a tax increase by issuing a
30-year bond.
Price said the district expects to receive $1.6 million in state
reimbursement for the $3 million Ross renovation work. He is hoping for a
spring groundbreaking.
Call Sylvester at 829-7219.